Here’s Mary and the Christian Life by Amy Welborn. It's free today, on Amazon Kindle.
Here is an excerpt from the book, about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
The image of Mary as a woman “clothed in the sun” certainly has power and has a place in Christian iconography. It is also important in Catholic and Orthodox understandings of Mary’s place in heaven. But the image is also so complex that it serves to enrich our understanding even beyond this identification to help us see God’s gift of Mary as the Mother of the Church-as our mother.
As we’ve seen throughout this book, Mary is a powerful presence in our lives as individuals and as a Christian community because in her we see the promise God holds out to all of us. We see that our yes-our fiat-matters. God moves and redeems in the midst of the most fundamental human mysteries of pregnancy and childbirth, using creation to re-create, to save.
In our presence to one another, we bear and welcome Christ. Our love of God and neighbor is part of the cosmic course of history. In welcoming the light of Christ, in celebrating his justice and passionate love, we are part of something astonishing and miraculous because it is God’s work in the world, through us. The heart of discipleship is seeking Christ and, once we find him, listening and following his word. Suffering happens, and in the suffering of every person is Christ, to whom we are called to be quietly, lovingly present.
This is Mary’s life. It is our life as well, lived, not alone, but under the care of a most loving mother, the gift of a most loving and understanding God.
